MAJOR EVENTS
Located on the corner of State and Winter streets, the stately structure has a rich history in Salem. Opened in 1912, the building served as Salem’s first public library until the early 1970s, when it was purchased by the YWCA. Willamette bought the building in 2003. The College of Law has spent more than a year renovating the structure, with invaluable assistance from a number of generous donors and foundation grants. Several of the programs slated to move into the new Oregon Civic Justice Center help connect the law school with state government and the broader legal community,
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg An associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg received her B.A. from Cornell University, attended Harvard Law School and received her LL.B. from Columbia Law School. She served as law clerk to Judge Edmund L. Palmieri of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1959–1961. Photograph by Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
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The law school’s 125th Anniversary Celebration will commence on Friday, Sept. 12, 2008, with a visit by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who will participate in the building dedication of the law school’s new Oregon Civic Justice Center.
125 th Anniversary
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in 1883, Willamette’s law school was the first in the Pacific Northwest and second in the West. One hundred and twentyfive years later, the college continues to push the frontier of legal education.
Following the dedication ceremony and a day spent with law faculty and students, Ginsburg will present the first lecture in Willamette’s 2008–09
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Founded in the early days of the Oregon Territory, Willamette has long been closely associated with the beginning of law and government in the region. It housed the first session of the Legislature to meet in Salem and served as home to the first court in the territory under the auspices of the United States. Established
including the Clinical Law Program, the Oregon Law Commission, and the Center for Law and Government.
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this fall Willamette University College of Law will kick off a yearlong celebration in recognition of the school’s 125th academic year, 2008–09.
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College of Law Plans 125th Anniversary Celebration
Atkinson Lecture Series, which has welcomed world leaders, authors, actors, scientists and educators to campus since its founding in 1956. Preceding her lecture, Ginsburg will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws on behalf of the Willamette University Board of Trustees. More information on this event will be available this summer. Coinciding with Ginsburg’s visit will be the law school’s annual reunion weekend, which will be held Sept. 12-14, 2008, in Salem. The classes of 1958 and prior, 1968, 1978, 1983, 1988 and 1998 all will be honored. Events will include a golf outing on Saturday morning and private class dinners Saturday night. We hope you will plan to attend these outstanding 125th Anniversary Celebration events, which will continue throughout the year, honoring the College of Law and its long history of providing outstanding legal education and bar leadership.
From 1961–1963, Ginsburg was a research associate and then associate director of the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure. She served as professor of law at Rutgers University School of Law from 1963–1972 and Columbia Law School from 1972–1980, as well as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, Calif., from 1977–1978. She was instrumental in launching the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1971, was general counsel of the ACLU from 1973–1980 and served on its national board of directors from 1974–1980. Ginsburg was appointed a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. President Clinton nominated her to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and she was seated on Aug. 10, 1993.
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